For the most part, most motherboards available today will usually just list what connectors
they have available, such as what CPU socket they have (which determines what CPUs they
can accept) RAM slots they have (which determines what type of RAM they can accept),
and how many PCI/PCIe or SATA or USB sockets they have available, or how many fan
headers they have available.
For the most part you can simply refer to the section of this guide for each specific component
that plugs into the motherboard for the specification.
Motherboards do have a few unique elements to them though, as denoted below.
BIOS and UEFI
BIOS is Basic Input Output System.
The computers BIOS is a piece of firmware that is used to initialize the computers hardware,
load the bootloader that initializes the computers OS, provide options and modifiable parameters
for overclocking various components, communicate between the hardware components,
and can also potentially provide hardware abstraction layers, although most modern computers
access the hardware directly.
Most modern BIOS systems are based on very old versions, and the underlying functionality
of the BIOS has not really changed in decades.
As such, a newer standard was introduced that aimed to overcome some of the usual shortcomings
of most BIOS systems: UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface).
UEFI replaces the BIOS, and provides the interface between the firmware of the systems
hardware, and the systems OS.
UEFI is usually backwards-compatible with BIOS services, such that anything that requires
a BIOS instead of UEFI (for example for compatibility reasons) will function normally.
UEFI was designed to allow GPT storage disks on large drives (over 2TB), CPU independent
architecture and drivers, a modular design, backwards and forwards compatibility, and other
advantages.
Since most users do not ever need to interact with their BIOS, UEFI does not provide any
noticeable advantages for the average PC user.
Chipset
A chipset is a specific set of components and protocols that manages interaction between
system components, such as CPU, RAM, and PCIe peripherals, such as a GPU.
As time has gone on, modern CPUs have integrated more and more components into themselves
that would previously have been components on the motherboard, which means that
for most users, their motherboards chipset is somewhat irrelevant.
Sizes
Motherboards come in a range of different form factors.
The form factor of a motherboard will determine its physical size, as well as where all the
screw-holes are for mounting it, and each form factor will usually have a fixed location for
the rear-IO on the motherboard.
The most popular current motherboard form-factors are ATX and micro-
ATX. Mini-ITX motherboards are sometimes also seen.
The larger motherboards will have more room on them for components and expansion cards,
for example more slots for components such as RAM, or more PCI slots.
For ATX, MicroATX, and MiniITX the same screw-hole layout is used for securing them in
place, with larger boards merely having more screw-holes, thus any case or enclosure that
can fit a larger motherboard of these will also accept the smaller variations as well.
Computer cases will usually only fit up to a certain size of motherboard in them, and will
not accept any larger standards.
